ANN ARBOR, MI—Jan. 27, 2011—Edwards Brothers (EB) has partnered with Rockpoint Logistics to provide digital printing services for Rockpoint clients out of that company’s Aurora, IL facility. Edwards Brothers will be taking over management of the staff and equipment of the existing operation under a multi-year contract, producing a variety of finished goods, including perfect bound books, saddle stitched booklets, laminated covers and more.

Rockpoint Logistics, formerly known as Kaplan Logistics, is a leading provider of outsourced logistics services to corporations across a variety of industries. The newly formed company was acquired this month by Lion Equity Partners from Kaplan Inc., a subsidiary of The Washington Post Co.

“This partnership with Edwards Brothers, a proven leader in short run printing, enhances our offering and allows us to focus on the assembly and distribution of products for our clients,” said Mark Pell, CEO of Rockpoint Logistics. “Under the agreement we’ll continue to offer print-on-demand and micro-run printing and inventory management services to our clients with Edwards Brothers providing the manufacturing expertise.”

“Edwards Brothers has been a leader in opening and running digital print centers in publisher locations for more than 10 years and runs numerous facilities in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom,” said John Edwards, President and CEO of Edwards Brothers. “This is an extension of our digital and offset footprint and an example of our ability to help our clients focus on what they do best while we bring 118 years of short run manufacturing expertise to the table.”

Edwards added that Rockpoint will be utilizing Edward Brothers’ One Touch Reprint Web ordering service to place their orders with the digital print center. The service allows easy online ordering and order tracking with automated order confirmation, ship notification, and invoicing.

The new digital center is part of Edwards Brothers’ ongoing investment in plant and technology, including a recent large-scale upgrade of equipment across Edwards Brothers’ digital print facilities to allow for enhanced print-on-demand and short run production services, including Print Local service to allow manufacturing and distribution closer to the end user’s final destination.

Edwards Brothers has also joined with CPI in the United Kingdom, CPI Buch Bucher in Germany, Markono in Asia, and Griffin Press in Australia to form a global distributed print alliance called gps Global Print Solutions, allowing customers to place one order and have their books printed and distributed anywhere in the world. In addition to a sizeable increase in overall capacity, the upgrade also creates increased capacity for four-color and case bound work.